Sport [Paperback]

Louise Fitzhugh (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

Eleven-year-old Sport Rocque is living a happy life, keeping his father’s absentmindedness under control, and managing the family budget. When Kate, Sport’s new— and nice—stepmother enters the picture, things couldn’t be better. Then comes the news: Sport’s wealthy grandfather has just died and Sport is a multimillionaire.

But millions of dollars equals millions of problems, as Sport soon discovers when his mother returns and kidnaps him to double her share of the inheritance! Life at the Plaza Hotel is no fun when you’re a prisoner. Will Sport manage to escape and return his life
to normal?

Editorial Reviews

Review

Meet Sport, Harriet’s best friend, in this hilarious companion to Harriet the Spy—now available in paperback!

From the Inside Flap

Eleven-year-old Sport Rocque is living a happy life, keeping his father?s absentmindedness under control, and managing the family budget. When Kate, Sport?s new? and nice?stepmother enters the picture, things couldn?t be better. Then comes the news: Sport?s wealthy grandfather has just died and Sport is a multimillionaire.

But millions of dollars equals millions of problems, as Sport soon discovers when his mother returns and kidnaps him to double her share of the inheritance! Life at the Plaza Hotel is no fun when you?re a prisoner. Will Sport manage to escape and return his life
to normal?

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Yearling (March 12, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440418186
• ISBN-13: 978-0440418184
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,251,135 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Louise Fitzhugh was born in Memphis, Tennessee on October 5, 1928. She was the only child of attorney Millsaps Fitzhugh and Louise Perkins. After attending an exclusive girls' school, Miss Hutchison's, she attended three different colleges but never obtained a degree, and traveled in Europe, before finally settling down in New York City to pursue a career as a painter. In the late 1950s she and a friend, Sandra Scoppetone, began work on a beatnik parody of Kay Thompson's Eloise, which was published in 1961 as Suzuki Beane. In 1964 she published her first novel, Harriet the Spy. Although it received mixed reviews from adults at the time, today it is widely regarded as a forerunner to the sort of realistic children's fiction that would dominate the late 1960s and 1970s. Two novels about Harriet's friends followed: The Long Secret in 1965 and Sport, published posthumously in 1979.
Contemporary social issues figured prominently in much of Fitzhugh's work for children: Bang Bang You're Dead was a 1969 picture book with a strong anti-war message and Nobody's Family Is Going to Change (1975) explored both women's rights and children's rights. Ironically, it became the basis of the Broadway musical The Tap Dance Kid with the book's minor male characters taking a lead role, thereby completely overshadowing Emma, the female protagonist. Needless to say, this happened after Fitzhugh's untimely death in 1974 at the age of 46. After her death, three picture books were also published: I Am Three, I Am Four, and I Am Five.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books ever for kids AND adults!, January 6, 2000

By 

Tara (CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sport (Hardcover)

I first read Sport some 7 or 8 years ago, and I loved it! I still have a copy though its worse for the wear. I cant believe it is out of print. The publisher should be ashamed. This book should be available for kids today to read because it gives a realistic impression of a young boy's hopes, wishes, disappointments, and problems with his family. The scenes with Sport and his mother are particularly scathing, with a wonderful counterbalance with his loving and warm father. I think many children face the issues Sport did as far as family goes. This book DOES NOT make everyone in the family all warm and gooey , it makes them realistic and complex, like life really is. Louise Fitzhugh, if you ever read this, you are a fantastic author and you should try very very hard to get this book republished.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not more then OK, May 4, 2004

By 

Tsila Sofer Elguez "Tsila Sofer Elguez" (Haifa, Israel) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sport (Paperback)

It was a great pleasure to discover that Louise Fitzhugh has written two more books besides "Harriet the Spy" which is one of the greatest children books ever. As an adult I was thrilled to be able to reunite with all the great characters and especially with Sport, one of "Harriet the Spy" most beloved characters. This book however, was quite a let down. Not a total disappointement, as some of the parts do hold part of the magic ( I for example loved the part where Sport looks around the table to check all the good foods prepared by Kate) but not in a way that is able to overcome the flaws of this book.
I believe the best thing about "Harriet the Spy" was the fact that the characters, and especially the heroine were so unique - they were something you have never met before. There was never any heroine quite like Harriet and all the events of her tale are new and refreshing (at least in the way these events and happenings are interpreted by the heroine). This feeling does not exist when reading about Sport. The characters do not capture your heart in the same way because their portrayal is somewhat corny and stereotyped. You do feel you have read something similar before. This is especially true of Sport's mother and her sister which are as "bad" as bad can be and are therefore totally uncredible. One finds it hard to believe that the mother, even if she was acting out of pure greed would not at least try to win her son's heart or act so stupidly. I did expect characters which are rounder figures and not just "evil" - as the mother (did she have to look evil on the outside too?), or "good" as the new stepmother appears to be. The friends are also portrayed in the same manner and in spite of Fitzhugh's effort to inject some social issues (the policemen are after the black kid) the book does not rise above the level of an OK story.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of "Harriet" trilogy..., August 15, 2001

By 

Karla Keffer (New York, NY, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sport (Harriet the Spy Adventures) (Hardcover)

When I first moved to New York, I made it a point to go to the Olde Heidelberg (now Heidelberg) for dinner because it's where Sport's father takes his girlfriend, Kate, on their first date. That was three years ago; I read "Sport" sixteen years before that. (No one has ever accused me of normal behavior.) Suffice it to say, this book remains one of my favorites. Charlotte Vane (Sport's evil, avaricious mother) remains one of the most convincing--and terrifying--villains in children's literature and, in my opinion, Sport's father, the sweet, absent-minded writer Matthew Rocque, ranks right up there with Rhett Butler and Atticus Finch as one of those fictional fellows you'd marry if he were only real. And of course, Sport himself is a gem--funny, smart, and streetwise, he's the kind of kid we all wish we once were, or still could be. An absolute must-read.